After Bob and Annie's recent discoveries, Paul and I decided a trip south of the river was in order this afternoon. We began with a thorough though distant scan of the Corse from near Corseside Nursey, 1,000s of Lapwing and Golden plover were wheeling around but that was all. Angle harbour and bay was better in terms of variety. A mixed flock of waders was feeding along the rising tide line by the ridge. c200 Dunlin (with a similar number distantly in flight over at Sawdern side), 66 Black-tailed godwit, 6 Knot and a Turnstone, with numbers of Redshank in the channels on the harbour side and 25 snipe flushing. 15 Great-crested grebe, 2 female Scoter and 2 GN divers in the bay. 73 Pintail was my best count, 30 Shelduck, Wigeon, Mallard and Teal adding to the mix. And a last complete scan of the shore turned up 2 adult Whoopers beyond Bangeston Wood, nice. A dash back to Monkton next to look for egrets, the field Bob and Annie reported birds in recently was hard to check and we could only see a single Little egret in it. Down at Quiots Pill, the only egrets visible were also of the Little variety, however Paul soon picked out 2 egrets among a herd of cattle over on Pennar side one Little and one a Cattle egret (the field is at the end of Sycamore Street, Pembroke Dock), excellent.
Back to the Corse around 4pm. As we approached from Gupton side, a Ringtail Hen harrier quartering the reedbed was a good start (quite a small bird, pale on the underside, so presumably a male), this was soon followed by a Marsh harrier heading up the valley before we'd even reached the hide and moments later a different darker Marsh harrier was hunting to the western side (Richards 2cy bird?). 30 Teal were out from the hide, dozens of snipe taking flight as the harriers moved around. 2 Cettis warbler started to find their voice as dusk approached and Starling numbers suddenly increased with many 1,000s murmerating and sweeping across the valley before dropping into the reeds towards Starmans Hall. At 4:50pm a squawking Water rail took flight heralding the arrival of the 2 Glossy ibis as they passed right in front of the hide. They came in low from the east, circled widely 2 or 3 times, affording us some nice fly-bys before thankfully settling down to roost just out from the hide, giving us some excellent views in the fading light, superb. A real red-letter day.